Of all the places Leah and Rodney might have first met, it happened to be Kenya. Sure, better than your local bar or networking event, right?
It was July 2018, and at the time, Leah, a Wisconsin resident, born to Nigerian and Panamanian parents, was living and working in Nairobi. Rodney, although born in Kenya to Sierra Leonean parents, only visited while living in Lusaka, Zambia. It sounded strange, despite the dreamlike location, they had never met in person, such as walking through a local market or hanging out at a famous attraction. Their romance actually started on a dating app in the East African country.
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“I was casually browsing Tinder, as one does when they are newly single, and saw that Rodney had super liked me,” Leah recalls. She noticed they had different things in common, including their membership in the Divine Nine (he’s an Alpha, she’s an AKA), and decided to connect with him. “I proposed a date at my favorite nightclub at the time because I knew I could always signal to friends to rescue me in case he was boring,” she says. “Turns out that wouldn’t be necessary.”
While the two were immediately attracted to one another, they also found that conversation came easy, a warm connection easily being fostered. When they weren’t talking, they were dancing the night away, literally ending their first outing after 3 a.m. The first date would turn into a second the next day, and a third the day after that. They spent each day together until he had to fly back to Zambia on that Sunday.
And while starting a relationship with someone living in another country is often enough to scare away many looking for love, Leah and Rodney weren’t deterred. Through their long-distance relationship, they would learn more about each other as the days passed, from his compassion and dedication to her, to his appreciation for her tender love and care not just for him but also his family. As their bond grew from afar, they would finally get the chance to test it in person for an extended period of time when the world shut down in 2020. That experience let Rodney know he’d found his person.
“Due to COVID and subsequent border closures, I got stuck in Kenya,” he says. “We went from seeing each other for a few days every six to eight weeks to being together every day with no one else around. Once you go through that together and realize you still like each other, and want to be around each other, you’re ready to do life together.”
A year later, he put plans in place to have them do life together officially, aiming to propose in March 2021. While there were some hiccups to making that happen (more on that later), he was able to ask for her hand, creating a scrapbook of all their travels together to pop the question.
Four years after they first met in Nairobi, the couple married far from where they first connected, opting to say “I do” in Leah’s native Wisconsin, in Milwaukee and Mequon, on July 2 and 3. They had two ceremonies, honoring their Nigerian and Sierra Leonean cultures with a traditional ceremony on Saturday and a white wedding on Sunday. Both events were a success, which is a big deal considering the couple planned the nuptials from abroad while moving to their newest home in Vejle, Denmark. “Planning a wedding remotely whilst moving to a new country during a pandemic is a new level of organized chaos, but everything worked out better than we could have imagined!” Leah says.
And the photos from both days definitely prove that, as the couple, officially Mr. and Mrs. Carew, were captured smiling from ear to ear in all the images. Check out all the color, culture and creativity that went into their West African inspired wedding weekend in Wisconsin and learn more about their love story in this week’s Bridal Bliss.
01
How She Knew She Found the One
“From our first date, it was obvious that Rodney was very compassionate,” Leah says. “I knew he was the one after a nightmarish trip to Lake Malawi in September 2018 for the Lake of Stars Festival. Everything that could have gone wrong on a trip happened: Rodney totaled his car, there was a freak sand storm that blew concertgoers’ tents and belongings into the water, phones were stolen, cars caught on fire in the parking lot, friends sprained their ankles. It was chaotic. At one point during the night, I had a terrible stomach ache and needed to sleep. Rodney happened to have a lone magic pill for stomach aches and, to keep the tent from collapsing in the storm, he sat inside holding it up while I slept. That’s when I knew this man was different!”
02
How He Knew He’d Found the One
“I don’t think there was one specific ‘aha’ moment when I knew Leah was the one (I feel like that only happens in the movies),” Rodney says. “Rather, it was a series of small moments and interactions where she showed me who she was and the type of partner she would be daily and consistently. It ranged from how she supported me (e.g., going to doctor’s appointments with me when I was diagnosed with sleep apnea), how she cared for my family and hers, the compassion and energy she brings to her community and the people she cares about, discussing life goals and learning about her ambitions, and even how we worked through conflict together.
03
The Proposal
Planning his proposal to Leah was stressful for Rodney. He spent months trying to find the kind of rings she likes (pink sapphire with a rose gold band), having to receive the assistance of a jeweler all the way in India. He wanted to create a scrapbook of all their travels together, but at the time he was in Kenya and all the boarding passes and artifacts from their adventures were in Zambia. In addition to all that, Leah was extremely busy, working and studying full time. So he decided to wait until she had spring break so he could woo her and pop the question. He flew to Zambia to gather everything he needed and to get the ring (the jeweler agreed to meet him the day he was leaving back for Kenya) ahead of the proposal, and assumed all of his stress would be over. But after booking a stay at her favorite luxury hotel in Kenya, The Cliff Nakuru, they ran into more obstacles. Those issues included locusts flying over the hotel on the day he planned to propose, leaving Leah scared to go outside. There were other hiccups, but eventually, he was able to give her the scrapbook, which led to the proposal. “I persevered and Leah was presented with the scrapbook which included a letter from me and a final trivia clue stating ‘this is the place we agreed to spend our lives together’ and at that point, I played our song and proposed.
04
Wedding Planning
Having two ceremonies to plan from across the world is enough to make anyone exhausted. But what worked for the couple was sticking to their goals for the weekend. “We winnowed down our list to three goals,” Leah says. “1) connect and celebrate the community that raised and continue to support us individually and as a couple; 2) honor our parents; 3) and honor and celebrate our culture. Whenever we had to make a decision, if it did not help us advance our goals, the answer was no.”
05
The Traditional Venue
For their traditional wedding ceremony, the couple chose to have it at the Igbo Community Center in Milwaukee. “The community center was a meaningful meeting place for us growing up and means a lot to my father and the Igbo Community in Wisconsin,” Leah says.
Source:https://www.essence.com/love/bridal-bliss-leah-and-rodney/#1225108
